Times Of Swaziland: FOOTBALL WILL LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY

FOOTBALL WILL LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY
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BY SABELO NDZINISA on 08/01/2021 01:21:00


MBABANE – Football will live to see another day, but fans must get used to
live-streaming games as their return to stadiums will not happen anytime soon.
The good news is that fears that the Eswatini Government will again ban football
activities in the country have been allayed – at least for now. This follows
that the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, excluded football
when announcing revised COVID-19 response interventions in a press briefing
yesterday at Cabinet offices in Mbabane.
There were concerns from some in the football fraternity that government might
effect a ban on local games even in the premier league following the huge surge
in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and related deaths.
devastating
The second wave of the virus has shown devastating effects as 139 deaths were
recorded over this period and 4 120 new infections, creating panic among a lot
of people. Football has not been spared from the effects of this virus as a
number of positive cases involving players, officials and supporters of the game
have been making news in recent days.
There have been further concerns that local football authorities were not doing
enough in terms of managing the situation surrounding the virus as there have
been discrepancies on the testing of players, with the parties involved choosing
to play the blame game while the risks of those involved in the game contracting
the virus remain high.
Football followers would be happy to learn that government has seen it fit and
safe to allow football to continue, meaning that the MTN Premier League games
will resume as scheduled next weekend after a two-week break.
gradually
There were hopes that the fans would, however, be allowed gradually back into
stadiums as early as next month, given that this is a trend in most countries,
but this has been dashed.  This is because the COVID-19 interventions announced
by government yesterday also affect gatherings, which means fans will not be
allowed back. Others affected are business and commerce, local and international
travel and burials.
PLE’ Chief Operations Officer (COO) Pat Vilakati reiterated that the league
fixtures will resume as scheduled next weekend. It has been gathered that most
of the local clubs are currently undergoing COVID-19 testing in readiness for
the resumption of the games.